Front row seats to the greatest show in the solar system: Milky Way's black hole to consume giant gas cloud that will be seen across the galaxy

A giant gas cloud will hit the Milky Way's massive black hole this year which lies at the centre of our galaxy.

The cloud is predicted to hit the black hole known as Sagittarius A, entering its 'atmosphere', a thin haze of gas that swirls around it, in an event that could create shock waves seen throughout the galaxy.

The energy flares could be visible in X-ray wavelengths said Stefan Gillessen, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich, Germany.

The massive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way will pull the cloud into it, giving off bursts of energy

Astronomers have eagerly watched as the cloud approaches the black hole, and it is due to hit the atmosphere by September

Parts of the cloud might funnel into the black hole, where it will be heated to millions of degrees because of friction, giving off bursts of energy as it descends into Sagittarius A, reportedTime.

This will mean if the bursts are powerful enough, they could be seen across the universe - something astronomers are eagerly looking for.

'That could create shock waves, which could be visible in X-ray wavelengths,' Gillesen told Time.

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Observers have noted that the cloud's edges were already starting to shred and disrupt last summer, and it is expected to break up completely over the next few years.

Astronomers can already see clear signs of increasing disruption of the cloud over the period between 2008 and 2011.

The material is also expected to get much hotter as it nears the black hole and it will probably start to give off X-rays.

As it approaches, the cloud will be glowing under the strong ultraviolet radiation from the hot stars around it in the crowded heart of the Milky Way.

The gas cloud, dubbed G2, was first discovered by astronomers in Germany in 2011. They expected it to hit the black hole, called Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagittarius A-star by astronomers), late last year

There is currently little material close to the black hole so the newly-arrived meal will be the dominant fuel for the black hole over the next few years.

One explanation for the formation of the cloud is that its material may have come from nearby young massive stars that are rapidly losing mass due to strong stellar winds.

Such stars literally blow their gas away.

Colliding stellar winds from a known double star in orbit around the central black hole may have led to the formation of the cloud.

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Milky Way's black hole set to eat up gas cloud that could create fireworks